Should the AIIB apply standard conditionality rules? The short answer is “yes,” in light of the AIIB’s financial and institutional interests and for the sake of China’s own reform. Conditions from procurement guarantees to environmental protection should be implemented. However, considering China’s traditional stance on sovereignty and its political system’s incompatibility with that the West, political conditionality will likely be excluded.

The TPP should not be viewed as a strategic “counterweight” to Chinese influence. The agreement is important not only for the trade benefits that the U.S. will receive, but also because it promotes competition among the larger powers’ vision for economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, conferring greater choice and legitimacy to the emerging economies.

Read Professor Jacques deLisle’s piece originally published on Foreign Policy Research Institute’s website.